Cement, PSE stocks in favour

MUMBAI, FEB. 5. Foreign funds continued to invest in blue chips, helping the index to finish higher by over 18 points on the first day of current settlement on the Bombay Stock Exchange today.

While majority of new economy stocks declined on heavy pounding, arresting the Sensex rise to minimal level, that was mainly influenced by weak global advices, tech-laden Nasdaq composite index tumbled by over 122 points on Friday and Southeast Asian markets also closed sharply lower today.

The day's hot favourites were cement and public sector enterprises (PSEs) which exhibited a smart rally on frenzied foreign institutional investors buying. They had reportedly invested worth Rs. 5,000 crores last month.

Dealers said the reconstruction activity in quake-hit areas of Gujarat could lead to more offtake of cement and it was definitely going to reflect in the companies future performance and this aspect led to heavy buying by FIIs. The consistent rally in PSE shares that was attributed to the Government announcing its plans to disinvest in VSNL and CMC, also prompted upward trend in other old economy stocks.

The BSE sensitive index opened lower at 4337.52, which was also the day's low, and gradually improved further to a high of 4397.19 before closing at 4370.47 against Friday's close of 4352.26, a small gain of 18.21 points. The BSE-100 index also improved further by 16.38 points to 2230.26 from 2213.88.

The bullish fervour was so high that even reports of a strong possibility of fresh taxes in the forthcoming budget to garner resources for rebuilding Gujarat could not stem the rally in cyclicals, except for a moderate reversal in technology stocks.

In the specified group, 118 including 22 index based shares recorded handsome gains while 23 others closed in the red.

The BSE-200 and the Dollex were quoted up at 482.03 and 172.92 against 2477.17 and 171.18 respectively. The BSE-500 improved by 14.28 points to 1427.95 from 1413.67.

Himachal Futuristic remained the most active share with a highest turnover of Rs. 731.65 crores and contrary to the general market trend the share price closed at Rs. 1,008.40, down by Rs. 18.50. Other top traded scrips were Reliance Industries (Rs. 450.38 crores), Satyam Computer (Rs. 415.39 crores), Infosys Technologies (Rs. 256.06 crores) and Silverline (Rs. 236.55 crores).

- PTI

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